Christmas Around the World - France

"Joyeaux Noel" (Zwah-YUH noh-EL) from France!

The Nativity scene or creche (kresh) is very important to people in France.
Almost every home has one. Many are made by creating clay molds called
santons (san-TOONS).

Some people in France do have Christmas trees, but Christmas trees have
not always been very popular there. One of the main ornaments on a French
Christmas tree is stars of many colors. Miss Fulghum gave all of us paper
stars to color with as many colors and patterns that we wanted. Then, we
put them on the "Tree of Cultures."

Father Christmas is called "Pere Noel." Children leave their shoes by the
fireplace and hope he will come and leave presents in their shoes. 
Someone rides along with him to remind him of how the children have
behaved that year.

One favorite holiday treat is sables (sah-BLEH). It's a special kind of
butter cookie. We really enjoyed this as a snack from France.